1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus arranged to perform recording or reproduction with a cassette which houses a recording medium such as a magnetic sheet loaded on a cassette receiving part of the apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a recording and/or reproducing apparatus of the kind performing recording or reproduction by rotating a recording medium such as a flexible magnetic sheet, the recording medium is generally placed within a cassette to protect it from being damaged or soiled and also to facilitate handling thereof. Meanwhile, to stabilize contact between the recording medium and a recording and/or reproducing head of the recording and/or reproducing apparatus (including a condition in which they confront each other across an air film) and particularly to stabilize the travel of the recording medium in the vicinity of the head, a stabilizing plate is provided around the head.
Where such a stabilizing plate is provided on an apparatus arranged to perform recording or reproduction by loading it with a cassette containing a recording medium, however, the stabilizing plate must be retracted from the moving locus of the cassette when the cassette is taken out or loaded. The methods heretofore employed for retracting the stabilizing plate include:
(i) A method in which a carrier of double structure of separate sections which carries a cassette in one section thereof and the stabilizing plate in the other is arranged to have the cassette and the stabilizing plate not come into contact with each other when the cassette is taken out or loaded (see FIGS. 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.) PA1 (ii) A method in which the stabilizing plate is provided with a rotation shaft which is arranged on the body of the recording and/or reproducing apparatus to be operable in response to the opening and closing movement of a cassette receiving part of the apparatus; and PA1 (iii) A method in which electromagnetic means is used for operating the stabilizing plate.
In accordance with these conventional methods, however, the portion of the apparatus around the cassette receiving part and the stabilizing plate has inevitably become large in size and complex in structure.